Discussing the Vote on Emergency State Aid on MSNBC

... and yet democrats in washington refuse to listen to the american people. >> great to have you with us. steny hower is going to be with us, the majority leader of the democratic housesome steny there yet, chris? >> i can hear you. >> we showed john boehner coming in this past weekend on ""meet the press,"" we all are curious, why don't you have his tan? why aren't you as tan as john boehner? >> why am i -- need to turn the volume up here a little bit. >> yeah. >> i'm not as what as john boehner? >> you heard me. tan. john boehner has this remarkable tan at all times. >> why am i not as tan? >> as tan as john boehner. do you just not go out with the people as much in the streets as john boehner? >> i guess i just don't have the same salon that he has perhaps. >> oh, my goodness. well, you think he would be going there less because you guys are taxing that now. there is going to be a vote, going to be a vote today about -- what is it $26 billion stimulus bill? >> yes. well, it is a bill that's fully paid for, as you know, and it seeks to help states keep teachers on board so the class sizes are not exploding and we think that is going to keep about 160,000 teachers on the job this fall, which we think is positive for students, for parents and our country. >> is $26 million -- are you telling me has cbo score it had as revenue neutral? >> not only is it revenue neutral, but we raised a little more money than we spend, so it will, to some degree, not very much but a couple billion, $3 billion, reduce the deficit. >> great. so where did you get the $29 billion? >> well, we got -- part of that we got from an expenditure that we have ended early that was in the recovery act that we think we can end earlier on food stamps. we get additional dollars out of different programs a major portion of the dollars we get is closing tax loopholes for shipping jobs overseas. we think that is not only good tax policy but good jobs policy for the american people, keeping jobs here in america. so not only are the pay fors make this bill deficit newt neutral and in fact reduce the deficit a little bit but they also are important for keeping jobs here in america. >> the ""usa today"" headline, main headline, federal pay tops private workers, talking about people that work for the federal government making a good bit more money than people that work in the private sector, conservatives are making a timely attack on this bill, suggesting that it's a payoff to public unions. do public unions also win big in this bill today? >> well, i don't think there's a question of public unions. the public wins big in this bill, as i said, by keeping teachers on the job, by keeping police and fire on the job, by allowing local governments to keep critical services operating for the public. i don't think that is a question of anybody but the public winning on this, and also keeping about 300,000 people on the job, we know that jobs are still slow, that job growth has not been as robust as we would like. while we have added jobs in the private sector every month this year, we have lost substantial jobs in the public sector and we know that whether you are unemployed because you lose a public job or a private job that causes the economy stress. it causes families stress. so we think that this bill is a very positive effort to help states keep people on the job educating our children and protecting our public. >> christie? >> well, i think it's important that it does sort of equalize more the cuts that are being done at the state level with the spending that is being done at the federal level and that the jobs that are being protected are not just important to the families of those wage earners but to the communities, but i will also say that the elephant in the room is the pension and health plans that exist for public workers in illinois and around the country that have to be tackled because they are simply unaffordable. >> that is obviously, steny, that's what chris christie is doing in new jersey now, obviously. >> joe -- >> don't we have to look across the country at certain unions that pay zero percent in for health benefits, lifetime health benefits? >> joe, as you know, and others of you who are there, i gave a speech about a month ago on the importance of looking at the ...